Easter With Fairies
by Rose Starre
Summary: Instead of having the fairies visit for Easter 2013, Artemis goes down (dragging Butler along) to celebrate the holiday below-ground. If you thought Christmas was a disaster, wait 'till you see this!


**Disclaimer: I have rights to nothing in this story.**

"I'm going to visit the fairies for Easter," Artemis announced one day at breakfast.

"That was random, but okay," Juliet responded, digging her spoon into her bowl of cereal.

"Why?" Butler asked. He was slathering a piece of toast with jam.

"Why not?" Artemis questioned in return. He poked an egg with his fork. "Besides," he continued, "They're always coming here for the holidays. It would be nice to go down there for a change."

"Artemis Fowl? Thinking of other people?" Juliet exclaimed, "Brother, call an ambulance; I think my heart just stopped."

"Quit joking, Juliet," Butler said sternly. "I think he's serious."

"Thank you, Butler" Artemis stated. "You understand we've never actually been down in Haven for a holiday. It'll be a very interesting experience."

"For _you_, maybe," Juliet snapped, "'Cause _I'm_ not going."

"That's fine," Artemis replied, "I'll just have Butler to accompany me."

"_Fine_," Juliet shouted, "Don't think you're going to make me feel guilty and tag along, kid." She knew Artemis didn't like being called "kid", mostly since he had always been acting decades beyond his age, anyway.

Artemis's pale face reddened slightly, but he managed to keep his composure. He got up and went for the door. "Come along, Butler," he ordered, "Let's ready ourselves for the journey."

Holly came to take them to Haven in a shuttle. "It's nice of you, Artemis, to come down for Easter," she told the genius as they took off.

"No problem," Artemis replied, settling back into his seat. Butler was seated, however uncomfortably, beside his charge. The two watched as Holly maneuvered the invisible craft over the Irish countryside. The skyline of Dublin passed to their left as Holly veered towards E1, Tara.

The shuttle shot down the tunnel. Its pilot slowed it down enough to swing into the port, jarring the shuttle's passengers as little as possible. They stepped out, Butler nearly bumping his head on several various mechanisms.

Haven stretched out before them, looking as marvelous as ever. One of Foaly's bio-bots flitted past, carrying a fragrant Easter lily. Artemis noted that there were quite a few of these bio-bots, each carrying a lily. The entire city was filled with the scent.

The whole cavern was laced with strings of lilies. Each building was wrapped in the white flowers. The very streets upon which they walked were lined with them. (Call me stereotypical. This is only what I imagined.) "I don't think I'll be able to smell anything but lilies ever again," Butler grunted.

Holly giggled. There was something different about the elfin captain. She seemed more jubilant than Artemis had ever seen her. There was a spring in her step and a joyous note to her voice. In fact, she almost looked as if she were ready to sing. And there was something tucked behind her ear, a small and modest something Foaly had grown and called an Elfish lily.

The fairies seemed to be hastening toward Police Plaza. Artemis asked Holly about it. "I don't know," she replied, "Trouble said he had something planned. He didn't specify what it was, though."

Trouble's plan was crazy, to say the least: Gather all the fairies in Police Plaza and get them to sit through an animatronic show of Foaly's own design. Trouble wasn't sure if he could really rely on Foaly for entertainment, but it was worth a shot.

As soon as all the fairies were seated, Foaly himself stepped out and greeted them with a remarkably short speech. Then, he trotted backstage and began the show. The show seemed to have something to do with an animatronic centaur and a robotic dog that walked about on two legs and could talk.

About halfway through the show, something went terribly wrong. The animatronic centaur stopped in the middle of one of his songs. The eyes flashed red for the briefest of seconds and he advanced offstage. He galloped through the fleeing crowd, swinging his fists, something Foaly didn't program him to do.

Butler jumped up, nearly knocking down a low-hanging garland of lilies. "What happened?" he cried, whipping his head around (definitely not doing anything to keep the garland in place).

Foaly galloped out into the din. "I could ask you the same," he said loudly, "You, after all, were sitting right there!"

"I wasn't paying attention!" Butler snapped back.

"QUIET!" Holly roared (quite effectively, might I add). The quarreling human and centaur (along with all fairies within hearing range) shut their mouths and listened. "Now," Holly continued more gently, "If we would all continue evacuating in a nice, orderly manner…"

The rouge animatronic let out a blood-curdling shriek, enough to make a dog go deaf. The fairies quickly resumed the screaming and running around in terror. Holly groaned in frustration, this approach would never work.

Artemis looked at the captain. The happy, giggling elf was gone again, back to where ever she was hidden most of the time. The Holly he knew best was back, trying once again to save fairy-kind. She seemed now in more control of the situation than even Butler. Artemis stood to offer what few services he could with this situation.

Foaly tried in vain to regain command of the animatronic. Even Artemis had no luck in doing so. "Well, there's one way to handle this," Holly said deviously. "Pummel it until it's begging for mercy as fast as its motorized mouth can speak."

Butler grinned, he liked that plan. "Now, we're talking," he murmured.

They found the animatronic centaur kicking and punching at a defenseless bunch of cornered kids. Butler advanced quietly toward it, Holly close at his heels. "I'll stay back here, thanks," Foaly whispered after them.

Butler tapped the robot's shoulder. As it turned, Holly shot it through the head. The robotic head flew from its neck and landed in a young dwarf's hands. The animatronic centaur dropped to its knees and fell to the ground.

The little dwarf looked at the robot head in his hands. "Awesome!" he cried, darting off to show his mother. The other children cheered.

"Now, what could have caused that robot to go rouge?" Foaly wondered aloud.

They all thought for a while, until Trouble approached, looking excited. "Guess who I found toying around backstage with Foaly's equipment?" he asked. Without waiting for a response, he answered himself, "Opal! She'd been allowed to see the show, but her guards dozed off and she got away from them.

"She hacked into the system while you had your back turned, Foaly. That's why the robot malfunctioned! Don't worry, though, Opal's back in her cell, safe and sound," Trouble finished with a smug grin.

"You mean," Foaly said, "my robot didn't have to get shot through the skull?" Trouble shook his head. Turning on his elfin friend, Foaly said, "Nice work." He punched her shoulder.

Holly shrugged off the blow. "Oh well," she replied, "At least you don't have to care for that one anymore."

Artemis butted in on the conversation. "Sorry to cut in," he said, "But we must be going."

"Of course," Holly responded, "I'll get you back home."

On the shuttle, Holly spoke to Artemis. "Why is it that, whenever you visit," she asked, "something goes wrong and we have to fix it?"

"Maybe it is Artemis's knack of getting into problems," Butler grunted with a hint of a smile.

Shooting Butler an angry glance, Artemis replied, "I have no idea."

Grinning impishly, Holly snickered, "There's four words you don't hear from Artemis Fowl often."

Artemis buried his head in his hands. Sometimes those two were hopelessly foolish. "Why must you always ridicule me?" he asked, groaning.

"Because," Holly answered, still grinning, "It's fun and quite easy to do."

Artemis pressed his forehead against the porthole. He saw Fowl Manor approaching quickly. "Watch where you're flying, captain," he said, grinning a little, "You almost hit that mountain."

Holly sat up straight, looking about for a nonexistent mountain. "Got you there, didn't I?" Artemis said, chuckling softly.

Relaxing a little bit, Holly shot him a quick glare. "You know, that's a fine mushroom cloud over your house there," she retorted, dipping down for a landing.

The landing at Fowl Manor was more jarring than the landing at Haven had been. "Go on, get out of my shuttle," Holly commanded playfully.

"See you soon, captain," Butler said as he ducked from the shuttle.

"Good bye, Holly," Artemis said.

Holly waved to them both. She sealed the shuttle's door and took off. She swooped good-naturedly over their heads before starting back for Haven.

**Happy Easter, Everyone!**


End file.
